The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1887-08-05


highest praise from critics at the recent
exhibition in San Francisco. Being inn
itative and acrobatic, they soon rob a
circus of it's gymnastic wonders. They
herd, hunt, fish, are very expert with the
lasso, easily throwing it over any desig-
mated horn or hoof of steer, and are un-
excelled in horsemanship the world over.
The Sandwich Island Americans are also
proficient horsemen, and think nothing
of riding full speed down a forty-five de-
gree angle after wild boar.
Boar hunting is rare sport. They are
useless save to give zest to the island life,
and dozens are sometimes killed in one
hunt. An Infatuated animal can easily
gore man to death if allowed to come
to close quarters. The occasional loss of
horse or dog but adds spice.
Wild horses and cattle abound, are
easily driven into corrals, and readily
tanned.
The breaker-riding of the nativec Is to
me the most interesting of their sports.
They ride at railroad speed, standing
erect on small board, at the top of
breaker, balancing themselves with their
arms, landing high and dry upon the
sands. Occasionally one topples over,
and pair of dusky feet protrude above
the billow crest for an instant, then
shiny black body rolls up on the sands
and grins. The Americans cannot acquire
this art.
The numerous sharks do not interfere
with aquatic sports. Both whites and
natives are accustomed to them. They
never attack when several bathers are
together. Shark accidents" are viewed
as we view ordinary drowning accidents,
as avoidable with proper caution. Natives
frolicking with sharks lose their lives
sometimes as schoolboys do in ventur-
ing too far beyond depth, but no one
thinks OF keeping out of the water on this
account. / met a manned native, one of
the most skillful riders on the islands,
who lost his arms in shark frolic He
swan out to meet a shark, carrying
stick with him. When the shark turned
on his back to bite, he would dive and
rap its nose with the stick. This was
played dozen of times, the native grad
ually working into shore. A miscalcula-
tion was made, however, and both arms
were taken off at the elbow He swan
ashore in this disabled condition, ran to
the woods, and cauterized his wounds
with an herb they use.
The craters are the principal island
attractions. Until its last eruption,
Kilauea was the most active volcano in
existence. 1t is ten miles in circum-
ference, of oval shape, standing $500
feet above sea level. Prior to the erup-
ton it contained two lakes of molten
lava, with a partition of cold solid
lava between. The largest was called
Halemanman, or Lake of the Val
ley of Fire" My host was one of the
only three witnesses to its eruption, and
described 1t to me as follows: Before
the eruption the reflection from this fire
down in the craters was so bright at night
that we could read paper on the porch
of the Volcano House, the hotel nearest
to the crater. We had been down in the
crater the night of the eruption and re-
turned fatigued. About ten o'clock, be-
fore we had gotten to bed, that awful re-
Elected light went out suddenly like the
turning out of gas, and it was intensely
dark. We huddled together in one room
in the silence of awe. Rumbles like
thunder were heard, and the
house rocked to and fro. Pictures
fell from the walls, and we were alarmed
for our lives. The house might fall at
any moment, and we could not get out
for fear of dropping through some OPEN
ing in the ground. After the first five
minutes of rumble all was still and dark.
We kept painful vigil, and the night was
never so long. In the morning we ven-
tured out. The ground had been shaken
up by the earthquake, but there was no
danger of falling through. Looking
cautiously over the crater everything
was dark. The place where we had
rested the night before, the lakes of fire
and the lava bridge, had all disappeared
dropped Heaven only, knows where.
We threw over stone and then listened.
There was no sound, no bottom. We
left the island speedily, profoundly
thankful that the terrible dropping out
of that fiery bottom did not happen a
few hours earlier, else where would we
have beenp'
have gone to the crater myself, and
thrown over stones and listened. The
sensation of listening for sound which
does not come is indescribable. 1t is
unfathomable, and realization of the
bottomless pit. There is another gigan-
tic quiescent crater on the island of Maui,
called the crater of Haleakale 1t is
from twenty-eight to thirty miles in cir
cumference, and from $500 to 5000 feet
deep. Man finds himself the veriest
pigmy in standing on its brink and look
ing down.
Before Kilauee's eruption there was
subterranean lava stream under the
mountain which occasional vent-holes
would disclose. A tiny jet of smoke
would lead to them. Enlarging one with
stick, you could get glimpse at the
moving stream below. A stone thrown
down would float out of range of vision
on its fiery bosom-borne toward what
awful ocean of fire can only be con-
jectured.
Shortly before Kilauea's eruption a
town on Manua Loa was threatened with
lava destruction. Lava is a terrible
thing when started. Instead of following
channels made for it, it overruns the
banks, and spreads everywhere. The
inhabitants were, as may be imagined, in
great anxiety and distress. The only
thing to be done was to get out of
its reach, and patiently wait until danger
had passed or their homes had been de-
stroyed. COLEMAN.
Colonel Ochiltree's Big Hat.